Optical communication systems are widely used today for data communication. Optical communication systems may employ optical fibers as the transmission medium to support high data rates in long distance transmissions (e.g. long haul optical systems). In order to avoid wavelength blocking and to increase dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) fill, wavelength conversion may be needed at an optical cross connect (OXC) site. Typically, there may be two approaches to realize wavelength conversion: optical-electrical-optical (OEO)-based wavelength conversion and all-optical wavelength conversion.
Existing OEO wavelength conversion approaches may comprise a detector followed by data symbol amplification or regeneration unit, and a transmitter. An optical signal with a first wavelength may first be converted into electrical format. The electric signal may be used to modulate a laser tuned to a destination wavelength to convert to an optical signal. All-optical wavelength conversion may not need to convert an optical signal into electrical format, then to optical format. All-optical wavelength conversion may use nonlinear optical effects in optical components to realize wavelength conversion. These effects may include four wavelength mixing, semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) saturation, cross-phase modulation (XPM), etc. However, all-optical wavelength converters are relatively new and may not be commercially available yet.